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आर्षभी Ārṣabhī

the Bull-road · — · Leo (Pūrva- and Uttara-phalgunī, Maghā)

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Attestations

Purāṇas · c. 3rd-5th c. CE

पूर्वउत्तरफल्गुन्यौ मघा चैवार्षभी भवेत्।। १२४.५५ ।।

Pūrva- and Uttara-phalgunī and Maghā — that would be Ārṣabhī. — Literal rendering by the compiler

First vīthī of the middle (Jaradgava) mārga, per Matsya 124.56.

Matsya Purāṇa 124.56 · text · translation

Utpala's commentary · Utpala 966 CE; the authorities he quotes (Garga, Parāśara, Kāśyapa, Devala) are all pre-Varāhamihira, surviving only in citation

कृत्तिका भरणी स्वाती नागवीथी प्रकीर्तिता। रोहिण्याद्यास्त्रिभास्तिस्रो गजैरावतवार्षभाः॥ अहिबुध्न्याश्विपौष्णं च गोवीथीति प्रकीर्तिता। श्रवणत्रितयं ज्ञेया वीथी जारद्गवीति सा॥ मैत्रत्रिभा मृगाख्या स्याद्धस्तचित्राविशाखिका। अजवीथी तु दहनाषाढायुग्ममिति स्मृता॥ पूर्वोत्तरा नागवीथी गजवीथी तदुत्तरा। ऐरावती ततो याम्या एतास्तूत्तरतः स्मृताः॥ आर्षभी तु चतुर्थी स्याद् गोवीथी पञ्चमी स्मृता। षष्ठी जारद्गवी ज्ञेया तिस्रस्ता मध्यमाश्रिताः॥ सप्तमी मृगवीथी स्यादजवीथी तथाष्टमी। दहना नवमी ज्ञेया दक्षिणं मार्गमाश्रिताः॥

Transcribed from the Devanagari OCR of the printed edition at shloka_source_url (Achyuta Nand Jha ed., vol. 1) and checked word-for-word against two further independent scans of two different printed editions of the same commentary — Krishna Chandra Dvivedi's (https://archive.org/download/brihatsamhitawithbhattotpalavivrittipartidr.krishnachandradvivedi/Brihat%20Samhita%20%20with%20Bhattotpala%20Vivritti%20Part%20I%20-%20Dr.%20Krishna%20Chandra%20Dvivedi_djvu.txt) and A.V. Tripathi's (https://archive.org/download/JiUm_brihat-samhita-part-1-of-varaha-mihira-by-avadh-bihari-tripathi-saraswati-bhavan-granthamala/Brihat%20Samhita%20Part%201%20of%20Varaha%20Mihira%20by%20Avadh%20Bihari%20Tripathi%20-%20Saraswati%20Bhavan%20Granthamala_djvu.txt). Only glyph-level OCR artifacts that all three scans show to be artifacts (e.g. OCR रद्वव for रद्गव, श्व for श्च) have been normalised; every substantive reading is as scanned, and the two places where the scans genuinely differ are flagged in identification_notes.

Garga: 'Kṛttikā, Bharaṇī and Svātī are proclaimed the Nāga-vīthī; the three triads beginning with Rohiṇī are the Gaja, Airāvata and Vārṣabha. Ahirbudhnya, Aśvi and Pauṣṇa are proclaimed the Go-vīthī; the triad from Śravaṇa is to be known as the vīthī called Jāradgavī. The triad from Maitra is the Mṛga-named; Hasta, Citrā and Viśākhā, the Aja-vīthī; and the Dahanā is remembered as the pair of Āṣāḍhās. The Nāga-vīthī is the north-eastern; the Gaja-vīthī north of that; then the Airāvatī is southern — these are remembered as northern. The Ārṣabhī is the fourth; the Go-vīthī is remembered as the fifth; the Jāradgavī is to be known as the sixth — those three belong to the middle. The seventh is the Mṛga-vīthī and the eighth the Aja-vīthī; the Dahanā is to be known as the ninth — these keep to the southern mārga.' — Literal rendering by the compiler

FIVE INDEPENDENT SCHEMES, four of them pre-Varāhamihira, are set side by side by Utpala in ch. 9 — this is the single densest surviving witness to the vīthī system, and the database's vīthī entries hitherto rest on the Purāṇas alone. (a) DEVALA and others: nine triads straight from Aśvinī, Nāgā to Dahanā. (b) KĀŚYAPA: the same triads, given asterism by asterism. (c) VARĀHAMIHIRA'S OWN (BS 9.2–3), which starts the Nāgā with Svātī instead of Aśvinī and gives the Go-vīthī four asterisms and the Dahanā two. (d) PARĀŚARA, differing again (Airāvatī four, Vṛṣabhā two, Mṛga-vīthī two, Ājī = Anurādhā/Viśākhā/Jyeṣṭhā, Vaiśvānarī = Mūla + the two Āṣāḍhās). (e) GARGA, close to Varāhamihira. Plus (f) the SAMĀSA-SAṂHITĀ, Varāhamihira's own lost epitome, agreeing with (c). Utpala explicitly notes the clash — 'atra varāhamihireṇa saha bhedaḥ', 'here there is a difference with Varāhamihira' — and Varāhamihira himself refuses to adjudicate at 9.7. THREE NAME-FORMS for this road are now attested where the database had one: Vṛṣabhā (Varāhamihira BS 9.1 and Utpala's prose), Vārṣabhī/Vārṣabhā (Garga, in the compound 'gajairāvatavārṣabhāḥ' — Krishna Chandra Dvivedi's editor notes the form 'vārṣabhā' as an ārṣa usage), and Ārṣabhī (Garga again, 'ārṣabhī tu caturthī syāt'), which is the form the database has from Matsya 124.56. Content confirmed as Maghā + the two Phalgunīs by Devala, Kāśyapa, Varāhamihira, Garga and the Samāsa-saṃhitā, exactly matching the Matsya reading; PARĀŚARA alone reduces it to the two Phalgunīs.

Utpala, Vivṛti on Bṛhat Saṃhitā 9.4, quoting Garga · text · translation

आर्षभी Ārṣabhī

Attestations

See also